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January 30, 2013

New Hire Roundup: CFP Board Announces Chair Appointments

Prudential Retirement welcomes back Byrne, Hyssong; more

This week in new hires, new chair and committee announcements, the CFP Board announced new chair appointments; John Byrne and Bryan Hissong returned to Prudential Retirement; Jac McLean was named head of distribution at Hartford Mutual Funds; Aaron Meder advanced at LGIMA; Michael Palmieri joined Pentegra Retirement Services; and Jim Le Rose went to Fiduciary Trust.

Also, Advisor Impact welcomed Tim Whiting; John Johnson was named president of NPC; Integrated Financial Partners announced a new strategic partnership; Commonfund announced a number of promotions, changes and additions; and Kleinberg Kaplan welcomed Claudio De Vellis and Dorothy Santos.

CFP Board Announces Chair Appointments

The Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards (CFP Board) announced Monday the appointments of its 2013 chairs to the disciplinary and ethics commission, public policy council, council on education and council on examinations.

Martin Siesta was named chairman of the disciplinary and ethics commission. He is the founding principal of Compass Wealth Management LLC in Maplewood, N.J. Previously, he was a senior financial planner with the Wealth Planning Group, an office of Metropolitan Life.

Roger Begin was named chairman of the public policy council. He is the sales director for BNY Mellon’s wealth management group for the Rhode Island region. He has more than 15 years of investment sales experience, working as a private client advisor at Bank of America Private Bank prior to joining BNY Mellon.

Dr. Jesse Arman was named chairman of the council on education. He is the vice president of regulatory and government affairs at the College for Financial Planning in Greenwood Village, Colo. Prior to that, he spent 15 years as the college’s vice president of academic affairs. He has been involved in financial services and education for 35 years as a higher education administrator, and concurrently as a financial and tax practitioner.

Craig Lemoine was named chairman of the council on examinations. He holds the Jarrett L. Davis Distinguished Professorship in financial planning technology at The American College, where he has been an assistant professor since 2008. He began his career in 1998, and previously worked for PIE Technologies as a financial analyst and at Lincoln Financial Advisers as a team manager and financial planner.

Prudential Retirement Welcomes Back Byrne, Hissong

Prudential Retirement, a business unit of Prudential Financial, recently welcomed back two sales team members, John Byrne and Bryan Hissong. Byrne has been appointed vice president of institutional retirement plans, and is now responsible for the development and sales of large tax-exempt, Taft-Hartley and corporate defined-contribution and defined-benefit markets. Hyssong, who will be located in Overland Park, Kans., has been named vice president, regional sales director, and will be responsible for the new business development and client relations for the south region.

Byrne has more than 17 years of experience and returns from Lincoln Financial Group, where he was vice president of institutional retirement plans.

Hissong, who also returns from Lincoln Financial Group, originally joined the firm in 2002. He has been in the retirement industry since 1989, and previously worked for American United Life, AIM Funds and MFS Funds.

Hartford Mutual Funds Names Jac McLean Head of Distribution

Hartford Mutual Funds has named Jac McLean (left) head of distribution. In this newly created position, he will be responsible for retail sales, institutional sales and key account management.

With more than 20 years in the industry, McLean began his career at MFS Fund Distributors, where he held positions of increasing responsibility during his 16 years at the firm. Most recently, he served as head of U.S. retail and offshore sales at Eaton Vance.

LGIMA Announces Leadership Promotion

Legal & General Investment Management America (LGIMA) announced Monday that Aaron Meder, head of U.S. pension solutions, has been promoted to global head of solutions. In his expanded role, Meder will continue to oversee the U.S. liability-driven investment (LDI) business. He succeeds Kerrigan Procter, who has been promoted to managing director, annuities, legal and general, and will report to Mark Zinkula, CEO of LGIM.

Meder joined LGIMA in 2010. Prior to that, he was a managing director and head of asset-liability investment solutions, Americas for UBS Global Asset Management. Previously, he held roles with Towers Perrin and Watson Wyatt Worldwide.

Michael Palmiere Joins Pentegra Retirement Services

Pentegra Retirement Services announced Tuesday that Michael Palmiere has joined the organization as senior vice president and chief operations officer. He will oversee the firm’s actuarial services, defined contribution services, information technology, trust services and TPA operations areas. He will report to John Pinto, who will assume the role of president in July of this year, as previously announced.

Palmiere previously held senior level positions at Morgan Stanley Smith Barney, Merrill Lynch and several large public accounting firms.

Le Rose joins with more than 28 years of experience working with individuals, families and foundations. Prior to joining, he served as a senior relationship manager with Lazard Wealth Management and senior client account manager at Bessemer Trust. Previously, he was a private banker with Chase Manhattan Private Bank. He began his career at Citibank, based both in Europe, where he was responsible for U.S. correspondent banking services, and in the Middle East, where he was in charge of institutional relationships.

Advisor Impact Expands Management Team

Advisor Impact announced Tuesday the appointment of Tim Whiting (left) to the position of vice president, business development. He will report directly to CEO Julie Littlechild.

Prior to joining, he was the group publisher, financial planning at SourceMedia. He previously served as the corporate relations team leader for the Financial Planning Association, and held senior business development roles at Inc. magazine and Scientific American.

National Planning Corp. Names John Johnson President of Broker-Dealer

National Planning Corp. announced recently that John Johnson has been promoted to president of NPC, which is part of National Planning Holdings. NPC was created specifically for the independent investment professional and Johnson has been the firm’s interim president since November. Prior to his promotion, he held dual roles as SVP of NPC and first vice president, NPH. He will now lead all departments including strategic development, product development, and advisor planning and education.

Johnson has more than 25 years in the financial services industry, and earlier was vice president, account management for MetLife Investors, formerly Security First Group.

Integrated Financial Partners Expands National Footprint

Integrated Financial Partners (IFP) announced Monday that it has entered into its latest strategic partnership with Burke & Associates CPAs, a full-service public accounting and consulting firm. This alliance adds to the over 100 such relationships already in place at IFP.

Prior to founding Burke & Associates in 2003, John Burke was a partner with BDO USA LLP. He has approximately 30 years of experience working with closely held companies and their owners, as well as extensive experience helping clients with acquisition, sale and financing transactions. He is a registered representative of Lincoln Financial Advisors Corp.

Jason Horwitz is a member of IFP and a registered representative of Lincoln Financial Advisors. He has been in the financial services industry for more than 11 years, and brings a depth of experience in retirement planning, wealth management, portfolio analysis, estate planning and risk management analysis. He will offer a range of financial planning services to the clients of Burke & Associates. While the two firms will work together, each firm is independently owned and operated.

Commonfund Capital Announces Promotions, Additions, Changes

Commonfund announced Monday three promotions and two additions to Commonfund Capital, its wholly owned subsidiary investing in global private equity, venture capital and natural resources.

Leenong Li, who heads Commonfund Capital’s Beijing office and Asian initiatives, has been promoted to managing director. Li joined in 2010, and has more than 25 years’ experience in global private capital investing. From 2004 to 2009, he was the managing director at Jerusalem Venture Partners’ Shanghai office, and a partner at China Broadband Capital.

Managing Director Mark Hoeing, who has led Commonfund Capital’s London office since 2009, now has the added title of head of Europe. He joined in 2005. Managing Director Brijesh Jeevarathnam, who joined in 2006, is now co-head of venture capital. Both Hoeing and Jeevarathnam will participate on the investment committee with observer status.

Tim Yates rejoined as a managing director, a new position responsible for portfolio construction of its separate/custom accounts. He originally joined the firm’s rotational analyst program in 2000, and was part of its strategic solutions team for the last 10 years.

Dave Jensen joined as an associate director, a new position focusing on private equity. He comes from Portfolio Advisors, where he specialized in due diligence on private equity, venture capital and emerging markets opportunities.

Commonfund also announced that it has named Bradford Gallagher as chairman of its board of trustees. He will succeed Laurance (Laurie) Hoagland, who has retired from the board after serving a 12-year term. Commonfund also announced the retirement of Charles (Jeff) Pippin from the board after the conclusion of his 12-year term.

Gallagher has been a member of the board since 2005, and is most recently founder and president of Spyglass Investments LLC. His career spans 30 years in the securities and investment industry. In 1995 he founded Cypress Holding Company with Berkshire Partners of Boston, Mass.

Kleinberg Kaplan Adds Claudio De Vellis and Dorothy Santos

Kleinberg, Kaplan, Wolff & Cohen P.C. announced recently that attorneys Claudio De Vellis and Dorothy Santos have joined the firm in the estate planning and administration practice. De Vellis joins as a member and Santos joins as an associate.

De Vellis, a trusts and estates attorney with more than 15 years of experience, joins from the New York City office of Smith, Gambrell & Russell LLP, where he was a partner in the estate planning and wealth protection practice. Previously, he practiced in the area of trusts and estates at other New York law firms, including Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson LLP. He is also a certified public accountant and practiced with a regional New York accounting firm prior to beginning his law career.

Santos also joins from the estate planning and wealth protection practice of the New York City office of Smith, Gambrell & Russell, LLP.

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